Ryanair has confirmed that with deliveries of the 737 MAX8200 falling from a planned 57 to 40 airframes from Boeing by the end of June 2024, it is having to reduce its summer schedule. This comes after the carrier cut back winter leave for pilots earlier this year because of rostering issues.
The low-cost carrier (LCC) said in a statement: “Ryanair will now have to reduce approximately 10 aircraft lines of flying for the peak summer months of July, August and September. This will cause some minor schedule changes in the context of Ryanair’s 600 aircraft fleet and will reduce frequencies on existing routes rather than cutting new routes.”
It added it has already implemented schedule cuts at some of its “higher cost airports” such as Dublin, Milan Malpensa, Warsaw Modlin and four Portuguese airports. Ryanair’s Group CEO Michael O’Leary said: “We are very disappointed at these latest Boeing delivery delays, but we continue to work with Boeing to maximise the number of new 737 aircraft we receive by the end of June, which we can confidently release for sale to customers during the S24 peak.
“We will now work with Boeing to take delayed aircraft deliveries during Aug and Sept 2024 to help Boeing reduce their delivery backlog.”
O’Leary added that the limited new aircraft deliveries would reduce the number of passengers it will carry in the year to the end of March 2025 to “between 198 million to 200 million” compared with an initial forecast of 205 million. The airline expects passenger numbers for the year to the end of this
month to be 184 million.
